Stars Reminisce About the Academy Awards

Video What is it really like to go the Academy Awards show? Melena Ryzik asked some annual Oscar attendees about their most memorable moments.

By MELENA RYZIK

January 15, 2014

Early Thursday morning, the Oscar nominations will be announced, clarifying a race with a surfeit of contenders. The stars and filmmakers behind hopefuls like “12 Years a Slave,”“American Hustle” and “Gravity” will know whether they are indeed front-runners or sudden underdogs; others will abruptly find themselves in the position of also-rans and step off the red-carpet circuit.

“It was a nice way of sort of singling out the different parts of a movie, and all the different people that go into a making a movie,” he said, “and how they all are doing their job either very well or not very well.”

For stars who do make the cut, what remains after the nominations are revealed is six weeks of more industry honors, more press and more practicing of the gratitude-filled stump speeches that they will, with any luck, be able to deliver while hoisting an Oscar on March 2. As a blueprint for newcomers — and for everyone else — here are some memories of Oscar experiences from previous nominees, winners and attendees, excerpted from interviews with this season’s hopefuls at recent premieres and galas.

Abigail Breslin, right, arrived at the 2007 Oscars a nominee with cookies in her clutch. At left, is Nicole Kidman.

JULIA ROBERTS (“August: Osage County” and an Oscar winner nominated more than once, beginning in 1990 for “Steel Magnolias”): “The first time I went to the Oscars, I remember I presented a nomination for best song, a Randy Newman song. I was so nervous, I thought I wouldn’t survive the night.”

ABIGAIL BRESLIN (“August: Osage County” and a nominee for “Little Miss Sunshine” in 2007): “I remember keeping chocolate chip cookies in my clutch and bringing my Curious George with me, because I was 10 and I thought I would get hungry.” She added, “It’s embarrassing, but it’s true. I did eat those cookies. They were homemade by my friend, so I had to eat them.”

JULIETTE LEWIS (“August: Osage County” and a nominee for “Cape Fear” in 1992): “I was 19. It was like being invited to the royal ball. In America that’s our equivalent, is the Oscars. And I picked up this vintage little ’20s hand-beaded dress. And for me, it was really an organic experience, it wasn’t about all the business of it that it is now.”

JAKE GYLLENHAAL (“Prisoners” and a nominee for “Brokeback Mountain” in 2006, when Jon Stewart was the host): “My memory was Jon Stewart giving his mother or his wife M&M’s in the middle of the show. I remember her looking like she was hungry and him coming from the stage” during a commercial break, “walking down and giving her a bag of M&M’s. And I thought, ‘That’s why I love Jon Stewart,’ and then I thought, ‘That’s the only thing that matters, making sure the people you love are fed.’ ”

JONAH HILL (“The Wolf of Wall Street” and a nominee for “Moneyball” in 2012): “I brought my mom. I was terrified, and my mom was talking to every single person there. Oh yeah, my mom was talking to Brad Pitt’s mom the whole time. They were sitting next to each other. And then I was nervous, so I kept going to hang out with Emma Stone in the lobby to talk. And then Brad Pitt got really upset because he was like: ‘You’re going to miss your category! You’re probably not going to win, but what if you win and you miss your category?’ ”

LEE DANIELS (“Lee Daniels’ The Butler” and an attendee as a producer of “Monster’s Ball” in 2002): “It was Halle Berry. We had lost everything. There was nothing to win. It was ‘In the Bedroom’ with Sissy Spacek that just kept winning over and over and over. I remember right before Halle’s name was mentioned, I ran up to her — she’s sitting in the front row with her mom — and I ran up to her, because she was sort of like, looking crazy-eyed. I said: ‘We got this! We got this!’ I didn’t even know whether I believed that we had it, but I wanted her to feel good. And we got it!”

PAUL DANO (“12 Years a Slave” and “Prisoners” and an Oscar attendee with “Little Miss Sunshine” in 2007): “I remember somebody, who I won’t name, showing me the ropes and making sure that I was lubed up with enough Scotch to get through the commercial breaks. And that was a mistake. Now I’ll know next time better how to manage my bar runs and not try to keep up with some of the experienced people.”

LEONARDO DICAPRIO (“The Wolf of Wall Street” and a first-time Oscar nominee at 20 for “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape” in 1994): “I just remember putting a suit on and being incredibly uncomfortable in a suit and desperately not wanting to win, so I wouldn’t have to go up onstage and give a speech, because that’s what I was terrified about. But my mother actually talked me though the whole process, and so did my father, and said, ‘Look, these people are here, and you’re getting honored, so try to enjoy the night, and take the pressure off yourself.’ ”

NICOLE HOLOFCENER (writer-director of “Enough Said”): “I went with my stepdad,” Woody Allen’s longtime producer Charles H. Joffe, “when he won for ‘Annie Hall.’ I remember it was the same year as ‘Star Wars’ and really good movies like ‘Julia.’ I remember Lauren Hutton and Mark Hamill hugged me. At the time, Mark Hamill, oh my God! He got up, he was sitting in front of us, turned around and hugged me, ‘Congratulations.’ It was really fun. We were surrounded by Cher and Raquel Welch. You know, the ’70s. I went into the bathroom stall after Lauren Bacall. That I remember vividly. We shared a toilet. That’s glamorous, right?”

Correction: January 15, 2014

An earlier version of this article misstated the age at which Leonardo DiCaprio was nominated for an Oscar. He was 20, not 18.